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Regardless of Fifa’s ruling, it is understood local football chiefs are yet to take a decision on whether players, from both sides of the community, will be offered shirts with poppies as part of Remembrance commemorations.

Previously, football’s governing body said the symbol of memorial is a political statement and cannot be worn on shirts for the England and Scotland clash.

Its rules decree shirts should not carry political, religious or commercial messages.

But the move - which comes five years after England were given a poppy ban in a game against Spain on the eve of Remembrance Sunday - has caused fury among some fans.

The Royal British Legion added: “We see no reason why the poppy should be banned as it is not a political symbol.”

Today Fifa looked set to allow players from England, Scotland and Wales to wear poppies on armbands during next week’s World Cup qualifiers in a compromise.

The Derry-born winger also refused to wear a poppy while at his previous clubs Sunderland and Wigan, often receiving fierce criticism for his decision.

In an interview in the official Albion match day programme earlier this season he explained why he feels he cannot wear a poppy on his shirt.

“We are coming up to Remembrance Day and I won’t wear a poppy on my shirt,” McClean said.

“People say I am being disrespectful but don’t ask why I choose not to wear it.

“If the poppy was simply about World War One and Two victims alone, I’d wear it without a problem.

“I would wear it every day of the year if that was the thing but it doesn’t, it stands for all the conflicts that Britain has been involved in. Because of the history where I come from in Derry, I cannot wear something that represents that.”